There was a storm here yesterday afternoon. I saw my neighbour picking up loose chattels in his yard, and I stacked my new outdoor chairs so they wouldn't be rained on. Such are the precautions one takes. What do you do when there is a shit storm? Do you stay inside so as not to get peppered with giant turd hailstones? I guess it depends on the individual shit storm. You sure do see a lot of them on social media. I saw one today. It was to do with a primary school in Melbourne that has given Shi'ite students who are observing the month of Muharram the option to leave the assembly hall during the singing of the National Anthem. For those of you who don't know, and that number included me until this morning as today was the first I had heard of it, this is an observance by some Muslims for a month around this time of year. Because it is a month of mourning, one does not partake in joyous activities such as singing. This is why students have been given the option to stand outside the hall.
But as can be predicted in these scatological weather phenomena, people are totally missing the point. Let me explain things. I won't promise to do it in simple terms, because I tend to write in a convoluted, although fluent, manner. But I will try and explain things best I can.
First of all: NOBODY is disrespecting anything. Not Australia, not the National Anthem, not our way of life. It is not about the National Anthem. It is about SINGING. That's what the 'problem' is. If the school was playing Taylor Swift for the kids to sing along with, the children would be given the same option of leaving the hall. And if they take up this option, they had better get out of there quickly, because I would be barrelling from the hall quickly enough to knock them over like ten pins!
The motto of the school is something along the lines of 'Many Cultures; One Community'. This would indicate to me students from other backgrounds have cultural needs addressed and respected, too. Is it a bad thing to teach kids about other cultures and how to be respectful? The school is damned if they do, and damned if they don't, I reckon.
I really cannot see how this is different to allowances that were made when I was going through school. When I was seven, most of my class practised and prepared for our First Holy Communion. All of us except for one little girl, who told me her mother didn't want her to doing the sacrament. 'm guessing this kid might not have been Catholic, but you know what? It doesn't matter.
During my high school years, I attended the local State school, and the Catholicism came in handy because we could bludge off and attend Mass on the Holy Days of Obligation. But in terms of cultural respect, when I was in Year 10, we had our prac cooking on a Friday, which during Lent was kind of problematic as we weren't meant to touch meat. The teacher, an evil old harridan, had to come up with substitutes to accommodate the Catholic and Greek Orthodox students. Every Friday it was, 'Hands up the Catholics.' First Friday after Easter, she did it again. 'Hands up the Catholics!' she cawed, like the old crow she was. I put up my hand and pointed out Lent was over. The teacher lost her shit. 'I know Lent's over, Simone Bailey!' she barked. 'I just want to know who the Catholics are!' (Bitch, please. *Does eyeroll*).
But you see what I'm getting at here? There is really no need for mole hills to take on the volume and shape of mountains, is there?
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